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Saturday, December 28, 2013

Merry Christmas! Hope everyone had a lovely restful break. I spent mine at home with my family which was lovely. It's so nice being at home, other than the fact that it feels like Winter here! I just have a quick mani to show you today that I wore earlier in December when my MoYou stamping plates arrived and I had to test them ASAP.

I used Enchanted Polish 'Disco Barbie' for the base and then stamped on top of it using Color Club 'Beyond' and MoYou plate 11 from the Artist Collection. I used the area around her hair for both of these images.

First up I need to mention how impressed I am with my MoYou plates. Not only are the full sized images incredibly beautiful, but they are easier than I expected to use - as far as getting the part of the image I wanted onto my nails etc. 'Disco Barbie' was also really great. I barely needed the second coat I used, as it was so opaque.

I am really keen to get some more MoYou plates, especially some full sized images, so please let me know any that you recommend! If you haven't seen them, make sure you have a look at their website - fair warning though, you may want to buy EVERYTHING!

'Liquid Gold' is a gorgeous pale, almost champagne gold colour and it is full of more yellow gold irregular flakes. I tend to stay away from gold polish mostly because I am so pale, but still with yellow undertones so I don't suit a lot of golds (though I only wear gold jewellery… weird…), but this one is light enough that it was really pretty. I like how the flakes give the polish a sort of gilded effect, it's so Christmassy to me.

Now for a real favourite of mine! This is 'Dark Angels' and it is a holographic beauty. When I first opened up my parcel from Katherine, I saw this and knew I'd love it - dark + holographic is always going to equal love for me - but it was once I put it on, I got a pleasant surprise. At certain angles, there is a slate/blue look to this polish, then on extreme angles it shines red! I love that this is so much more than a black holo, basically I love a polish that can surprise me.

Both of these were, as usual, easy to apply. I used 3 coats for both. 'Dark Angels' was a little thicker (not at all in a bad way), so potentially if you use thinner coats than I did, you may need 4 coats. 'Liquid Gold' was also perfectly smooth after one normal coat of top coat.

Polished By KPT polishes are available direct from Katherine's Big Cartel shop if you're in the USA. For those international people, check out this 'where to buy' tab. All polishes are 3-free and not tested on animals.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

These products were provided for review. This is my personal, unbiased opinion.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Sorry for the absence. Long story short, I accidentally ate something I'm quite severely intolerant to and as such have spent the last few days in a very sorry state in bed. In fact I'm still in bed while I write this to try and rest up for work tonight.

Anyway, enough about that, today I have the last 2 multichromes that were recently released in the Winter 2013 collection by KBShimmer (see my previous 2 posts here and here). The last 2 that I am showing you are 'Shade Shifter' & 'Rollin' With The Chromies'.

'Shade Shifter' is gorgeous, it goes mainly between electric blue and purple, but every now and then a cranberry red colour appears in the mix and then at extreme angles a beautiful copper/gold comes out. As with the other 2 non-holo multichromes that I've shown you ('Pigment Of My Imagination' and 'Urban Camo') the shift is very strong and seems to look different every time I look at my nails.

This is the holo sister to 'Shade Shifter' aka 'Rollin' With The Chromies'. It has similar shifts to 'Shade Shifter' but the shifts are a little bit subtler and there is added holo goodness. I love this polish - are you surprised? Holo and multichrome… Mmmmmm.

The formula of these was simlar to the previous ones, both were very easy to apply. 'Rollin' With The Chromies' is shown with 3 coats, but you may or may not be able to get away with 2 if you use thicker coats. 'Shade Shifter' on the other hand is fairly sheer. I used 5 coats, but I would have left it at 4 coats if not for the lighting. If you use thicker coats, of course you could use less coats or on the other hand you could use 1 or 2 coats of this over black to get a similar result.

KBShimmer is available from a number of places in the USA, have a look at the Locations page for a shop or event near you. For us international ladies, check out Harlow & Co (free shipping on international orders over $75!).

These products were provided for review. This is my personal, unbiased opinion.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

I have three more Polished by KPT thermal polishes (that change colour with temperature) to show you today and they are just more of the same - in other words more incredibly beautiful and unique polishes (you can check out my last thermal post here). What's not to love? The three polishes I have to show you today are 'Nightcrawler', 'La Catrina' and 'Hot Like Wasabi'. With all of these polishes, I will show photos going from cold then transitioning through to how they appear when hot.

'Nightcrawler' was always going to be a favourite. Right from when I first saw swatches of this polish appear, I absolutely loved it and in real life it did not disappoint, in fact it was even better than I expected. The duochrome is so strong - you can see that gorgeous shift from pink/purple to electric blue. The shift is a bit more obvious in the darker cold colour of this polish. When this is transitioning it is so stunning. I'm going to have to say that this is one of my favourite polishes I own I think, yup you ALL need it!

'Hot Like Wasabi' was a surprise favourite for me. I love these interesting coloured polishes but I had no idea just how incredibly gorgeous this would be in real life. I just want to keep putting this polish back on every time I change my nails. I got a good few mentions and questions about this polish too. 'Hot Like Wasabi' changes from a chartreuse to a hot colour that is really hard to describe - sort of green leaning grey leaning mustard... Just take my word that this is a breathtakingly beautiful polish and the holo in this just makes it perfect in my holo hoarding life.

As usual, the formula on these was great. 'La Catrina' appears slightly sheer in my photos but was ok in real life. I used 3 coats for all of these photos but as usual, depending on the thickness of your coats, some of these may only require 2 coats. The thermal effect of all of these was really sensitive and so changed readily throughout the day.

I'm sure I don't need to spell it out any clearer, but I am so impressed with Polished by KPT polishes. They are unique and easy to apply and they have all worn well without chipping on me too.

Polished By KPT polishes are available direct from Katherine's Big Cartel shop if you're in the USA. For those international people, check out this 'where to buy' tab. All polishes are 3-free and not tested on animals.

These products were provided for review. This is my personal, unbiased opinion.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

I have not been able to post over the weekend because I went to Christchurch for a wedding (which I might just add was absolutely beautiful and we had the best time). I will be back to swatching after my trip away tomorrow hopefully, so there will be some more Polished by KPT, KBShimmer and much more coming up soon :)

Until then, here is a very quick and dirty pic of my very worn and very last minute mani that I did before we went to Christchurch - note - they are VERY worn and very much ready for removal, but I thought I would show you anyway.

On my nails - Dance Legend 'Termo Trio No. 1' on my index and middle fingers, Color Club 'Cosmic Fate' on my pinky and ring fingers and then I did a quick saran wrap glob on my ring finger with Color Club 'Over The Moon' and 'Eternal Beauty'.

Hope you've all had a lovely weekend and I will be posting a proper post soon :)

'Twilight Metrorite' is so beautiful. The base colour is a rich purpley plum colour and it is packed full of duo chrome coarse shimmer. I have shown it here on its own on my pinky and middle fingers and it is shown over a coat of black on my index and ring fingers. I like it for different reasons both ways. The black allows the duo chrome shift to become more obvious, but you lose that gorgeous base colour.

This is a coat of 'Wickerman Embers' over a burgundy polish (the cold version of Polished by KPT 'Naughty & Nice'). This is a gorgeous glitter polish with all sorts of shimmer in there too that catches the light beautifully (also how great are those little star glitters in there?!). The base is a darkish burgundy colour, much like the colour I put it over. As was the case with Femme Fatal 'Coldwraith', this is so full of glitter that a thin coat gives amazing coverage.

Both of these were very easy to use. 'Twilight Meteorite' is slightly sheer and I am showing you 4 thin coats - as usual though, I have used more than needed as 3 coats was sufficient on my left hand. I only used 2 very thin coats over the black. 'Wickerman Embers' is so full of glitter that I only used 1 coat. The best part is that although it is very packed with glitters, I only needed one thick coat of top coat and it was reasonably smooth.

Femme Fatale polishes are available from their website (these are $10 AUD each) and they are also stockists of a whole lot of other polish brands and also makeup, so go check them out. Femme Fatale polishes are also available from some other places - be sure to check out the list of international stockists. Note - Twilight Meteorite is discontinued, so pick it up quick while it is still in stock.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

I was so lucky to receive a parcel from Katherine, the brains behind Polished by KPT. I am a big fan of Katherine's polishes, in particular her thermal polishes that change colour with temperature. I have 3 thermal polishes to show you today - 2 from the Fall 2013 collection and 1 Holiday 2013 polish.Note - Polished by KPT are restocking on the 1st of December at noon PST. All 3 of these polishes are included in the restock along with a few others. 'Naughty & Nice' is being sold as part of a collaboration trio that also includes a polish made by Serum No. 5 and one by Lacquer Lust.

'Naughty & Nice' transitions from a beautiful berry red/purple when cold, to a pale candy pink when hot. It is packed with irregular gold micro glitter pieces and there is iridescent blue shimmer in there too.

I love how the shimmer appears so different in the hot and cold looks of 'Naughty & Nice'. In the darker cold colour, the blue really pops and the gold shimmer is a bit more showy. In the hot colour though, the shimmer appears to give the pink colour a more delicate and ethereal look. Love it.

'Blood As Thick As Gold' changes from a gorgeous deep claret colour when cold to a nude when hot. It is full of gold flakes and also pink shimmer. The nude colour leans very yellow toned on me - in fact it is almost exactly my skin colour - truly nude.

The flakes in 'Blood As Thick As Gold' make it appear so luxurious to me. The look of it reminds me a lot of brocade. So gorgeous.

On to my favourite of all so far, 'Harvest Moon'. I absolutely love everything about this polish. The cold colour is so beautiful and autumnal, just slightly burnt, but still bright. The hot colour is what really makes this polish for me, a stunning icy nude. The holo is reasonably strong in this polish, but very fine.

This is 'Harvest Moon' transitioning - apparently this is the pattern that my fingers heat up in. These 2 colours are so complimentary. This is a real must-have polish in my opinion.

I am coming to learn that a good formula is the norm with Polished by KPT polishes. These 3 were all easy to work with, if slightly on the thick side (though not in a bad way at all). All were opaque in 2-3 coats depending on how thick I made the coats. These were all very sensitive to temperature change and changed colour fairly readily.

Polished By KPT polishes are available direct from Katherine's Big Cartel shop if you're in the USA. For those international people, check out this 'where to buy' tab. All polishes are 3-free and not tested on animals.

These products were provided for review. This is my personal, unbiased opinion.